Mortal
by The Fish with no pen
Summary: It was easy to forget just how bad the war could go after all the time on earth. Some though never forgot.


_**Dislaimer: **_Don't own don't sue.

_**Notes:**_ No clue what this is so yeah...probably sounds really odd as it kept twisting directions on me. Set post movie of the cartoon kind.

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The war had taken many things, many of which had faded away into the back of many a cpu. Buried and hardly remembered unless a long unused program shifts it back up to remind you. Or a physical reminder appears right under your optics and you can't say anything because no one else _sees it_ and it would be wrong to make them. Its why Ratchet tend to snap and snarl at them when they do stupid things, because they never seem to remember that those stupid things can offline them. That one day he won't be there to turn their slagging smoking chassis into a workable and alive mech again. Some days he wants to just give up, let them see what it will be like when he finally offlines for good and all that will be there is First Aid, Swoop, or some new bot flown in from Cybertron.

Not that First Aid and Swoop are bad, they've come far since they first entered the med bay as students, but they're still younglings in so many sense of the word. They never had to run a med bay alone, truly alone that is, during a fight where they have to chose and decide who will walk out alive and who won't, just because there are not enough fragging hands to repair everyone when so many are leaking energon onto the floor like a fountain. And if they never had to see that then many of the mechs that so blindly trust him to perform miracles in the form of healing have never witnessed him lose a patient or let one die to save another with a higher survival priority.

The time on earth had dulled the sense of danger in many of them. Much to the distress that was curled into a dense ball and hidden behind various masks, of officers deemed overly uptight by most of the Ark. Red Alerts fits and near spark failure when one or more security breeches were found and ignored until he fixed them or flailed enough at Prowl to get it done. To the Tactician to spend more and more time buried in battle plans and schematics of past battles trying to find the flaw and fix it before some did get killed by it in a future battle. All of these checks and double checks of guilt and fear enough stress that it sent both into a tense and snappish mood that caused the brig to be occupied at any given time until either their respective glitches acted up to land them in the med bay or a battle happened and the process began a slow climb again.

Then, there was Ratchet and his rants and accurate aim with both welder and wrench to the helm of every mech that came into the medbay with non battlefield injuries and a flippant attitude. Grumbling at them and giving various threats of remodeling to their frames or visions of waking up welded to a ceiling as he finally chased them out, fixed to the point one could not tell they had been injured in the first place and fearful of the grumbling Hatchet. None seeing the medic curl into himself mentally when alone and replaying each wound and procedure to find anyway to make the healing process better and faster and seeing places that could cause damage if he messed up for even a moment.

All three perfectionists of a high degree, much to the chagrin of most of the Ark as they saw it as unneeded, even as the three officers kept striving for better results and only Ironhide and Optimus Prime seeming to understand on some level why those three did as they did. Secure as they were in their belief that they were invincible and along side of Optimus Prime, his officers were just as untouchable and would always be the ones leading the charge.

Then came Autobot City and the illusion shattered when those three and many more didn't online to perform the same routines the rest had come to know and miss. A wish that Ratchet would take back for ever making in one of his fits, if his spark had still been there to see that his gaggle of idiots had finally found out how they would be without him in the med bay. Especially as it meant there was no Prowl to discipline them, Red Alert to watch their backs, Ironhide to train and be in the thick of the battle, and Optimus Prime to lead them as a symbol of strength and untouchable hope.

Permanent offlining would be the only way to remind all that though long lived, no Cybertronian was immortal.


End file.
